UP FRONT: WORTH NOTING

UP FRONT: WORTH NOTING; To Paraphrase a Republican, There She Goes Again

By John Sullivan

Published: December 7, 2003

Christie Whitman returned, and she came out swinging.

There was the former governor -- and current state campaign chairman for President Bush -- introducing Mr. Bush at a $200-a-plate fund-raising dinner at the Hanover Marriott in Whippany. There she was lashing out at the Democrats over reports that they used confidential State Police files to expose the practice of racial profiling under her tenure.

Once she was in Washington as head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, her voice was largely missing from New Jersey's public dialogue -- except for a retaliatory swipe at Governor McGreevey over the issue of state Supreme Court justices. Then after leaving the E.P.A. in May, she seemed to slip below the radar.

But with her double-barreled re-emergence last week, people began wondering whether Mrs. Whitman was making some sort of political comeback in her home state.

Not so, said Pete McDonough, a former spokesman for Mrs. Whitman.

''She is not in battle mode in New Jersey,'' Mr. McDonough said. ''She is way beyond that at this point.''

Mr. McDonough said Mrs. Whitman did not start the fight over the State Police files, but merely responded to a reporter's question. ''She hasn't fired off any letters or anything like that,'' he said.

And he said Mrs. Whitman was helping the Bush campaign because she continued to support the president. Moreover, he said that talk of any conflict with Mr. Bush having led to her premature departure from the environmental agency was overstated.

''They genuinely like each other,'' Mr. McDonough said. ''It certainly shows there are no hard feelings, because there never were any.''

Even if Mrs. Whitman is not ready to fight, the Democrats certainly are. Adam Green, a spokesman for the state Democratic Committee, said the former governor's policies had been ''discredited in her home state.''

''Christie Whitman is like the kid who sees a photographer and jumps into the air to get into the back of the photo,'' he said. ''It is kind of sad.'' John Sullivan